condemnation and — continuing
the children’s discourse — punish-
ment, lecturing; all this is directly
related to another key theme
of the exhibition, that of fathers
and children, succession of gen-
erations. It reveals itself on many
levels: “Agatha” by Gregory Orek-
hov is named after his daughter
whose birth served as an impulse
for Gregory to go back to sculpture
which he neglected after the death
of his father; not only do members
of the “Russia” group follow similar
esthetic principles in their work,
but are also bound by family ties;
not only do all participants of the
exhibition in one or the other way
use cultural paradigms in their
work, but also simultaneously
undergo some sort of psychoanal-
ysis session. And hence it comes
absolutely natural that a “portrait”
of Cheburashka can be interpreted
as “It” and a chocolate bunny can
allude both to the “empty canon”
of Moscow school of conceptual-
ism and applied Freudianism with
its unambiguous interpretation
of sweetness and phallic shapes.
The whole operating principle of
a tumbler toy sends the audience
back to essential psychoanalytical
principles.
One can come up with an infinite
number of concepts based on the
main theme. As in a kaleidoscope,
separate elements of the whole
bend and transform (another signa-
ture childhood memory), at times
multiplying mo st unbelievable and
mutually excluding interpretations.
But in any case, an attempt to come
closer to the essence will inevitably
lead to a situation where answers
to the questions that seem impos-
sible to find appear rather obvious.
And it could not have been other-
wise. A reflection appears only on
the kind of surface that hides depth
beneath.
Stanislav Rostotskiy
11